Shipping Strategies
Shipping Strategies
International Shipping
Etsy DDP Shipping to the US: What Changes on July 9 and How to Handle It
Last Updated
June 25, 2023
2 min.
Written By
Krišs Ģērmanis
From July 9, Etsy expects every order shipped to a US buyer to arrive with duties and import fees already paid, using a Delivered Duty Paid (DDP) option. If you sell from Latvia, Lithuania, or Estonia and ship to the US, this changes how you handle customs. This guide covers what Etsy is changing, how customs duties are charged for each carrier available on Swotzy, and how to create a compliant US shipment.
What Etsy is changing
Etsy is updating its Seller House Rules for orders shipped to the United States. Starting July 9, sellers are expected to account for all costs, including duties and import fees, in their pricing upfront, so the buyer pays the full cost of their order at checkout. In practice, that means shipping DDP.
The enforcement mechanism is Etsy Purchase Protection. Orders shipped without duties prepaid will no longer qualify. If a buyer is charged tariffs or a collection fee by the carrier on arrival, they can be refunded, and that charge is deducted from the seller. So a shipment sent the old way, with duties left for the buyer to pay, now carries real financial risk if a case is opened.
This sits on top of a wider shift. The US de minimis exemption, which used to let low-value shipments enter without duties, ended in 2025. More parcels arriving in the US are now subject to customs duties, regardless of order size.
What DDP actually means for you
DDP stands for Delivered Duty Paid. It means the sender is responsible for customs duties and taxes, and the buyer receives the parcel with nothing left to pay. The alternative, where the recipient settles duties before or on delivery, is DAP (Delivered At Place). Etsy's new rule pushes sellers toward DDP because it removes the surprise fees, customs delays, and refused deliveries that come with leaving duties to the buyer.
On Swotzy, this is chosen when creating a shipment by setting the Duties Payor. Selecting Sender (DDP) means duties and taxes are charged to the sender after the shipment clears customs.
These charges are not part of the platform shipping price paid at label creation; they are billed separately afterward. That timing matters, and it works differently depending on which carrier is used.
Express carriers: FedEx, UPS, and DHL
FedEx, UPS, and DHL clear customs through a customs broker, whose fee is already included in the shipping price shown on the platform. The trade-off is that duties on this route are less predictable than the postal route.
Here, duties are calculated from the HTS code of the product being sent (the US uses HTS codes, which can differ from HS codes). The code entered, and the item description attached to it, drive the duty the broker applies. If the code is wrong, or the description doesn't clearly match it, the broker can reassign a code that better fits the description, changing the duty charged.
An accurate HTS code and a clear, specific item description keep duties predictable; vague descriptions invite reclassification.
FedEx and UPS can only be sent DDP, so the sender pays duties by default. DHL also supports DAP, but for Etsy orders DDP is needed in nearly all cases to stay within the new rules.
One extra charge to know about on FedEx
FedEx adds a fixed guarantee fee to each shipment that clears customs. FedEx pays duties to US customs as soon as they are charged and issues its own invoice afterward; this fee covers that. Shipments with FedEx will show this fixed fee alongside customs duties on the Swotzy invoice.
When you get billed for duties
Because duties are settled after a parcel clears customs, they arrive on a separate Swotzy invoice rather than being charged at label creation. The rhythm depends on the carrier group:
National post (Latvijas Pasts, Omniva): carrier issues customs invoices monthly; Swotzy bills once a month, on a Friday.
Express (FedEx, UPS, DHL): carrier issues customs invoices on a rolling basis; Swotzy bills weekly, on a Friday, after receiving them.
The shipping price is fixed when the label is created. The duty comes later, on a separate invoice — so price duties into Etsy listings ahead of time, as Etsy recommends, to keep them from eating into margin.
Creating a US shipment on Swotzy
When creating a US shipment, fill in a few details about the item, its value, weight, country of origin, and its code, and set the Duties Payor to DDP. Swotzy generates the customs documents automatically when the label is created — no separate paperwork, no third-party customs forms to chase.
Tracking then syncs back to the store automatically, so the buyer sees updates without extra work from the seller.
The one thing worth getting right is the item description. A clear, specific description like "Men's t-shirt, size M, black, 100% cotton, made in Latvia" clears customs cleanly. Something vague like "gift" or "sample" can cause delays.
What to do before July 9
A short checklist to be ready:
Switch US orders to a DDP shipping option so duties are prepaid.
Price duties and import fees into US listings so the buyer pays the full cost at checkout. Etsy's US-specific pricing tools allow this without raising prices in other markets.
Get HTS codes and item descriptions right — they drive the duty and keep parcels clearing customs cleanly.
Plan for duties to land on a later Swotzy invoice: weekly for express carriers, monthly for postal, both on Fridays.
The short version: ship to US buyers with duties prepaid (DDP), price those duties into your listings, and you stay covered by Etsy Purchase Protection.
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